AUDITORIUM PRESENTATION
Problem Based Learning -the Development of an ePBL Portal: How the TechnologySsupports the Pedagogy
Dr. Gordon Wallace, Dr. Linda Peterson, Dr. Chris Skinner and Dr. Max Hincke
University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
ABSTRACT:
Problem Based Learning (PBL) is now conducted online at the University of Ottawa in both French and English. The PBL sessions are now enriched with digital images, video and audio clips from the relevant basic science and clinical medicine and are thus more engaging to students. PBL is distributed online with unique and powerful bilingual software. Students access PBL with their own laptop computers. Students develop their PBL objectives and answers on computer. Students and tutors are enjoying a revitalized PBL program. The introduction of computers to PBL has strong benefits but potentially negative effects as well. Our initial approach and experience with electronic PBL, and our evaluation process, will be presented.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
PBL has been a cornerstone of undergraduate medical learning at the University of Ottawa since 1994. The problems traditionally have been presented on paper to small groups of students with a tutor present to facilitate the discussion. Enrichments, like images and other clinical materials, were available for some sessions.
PBL is now electronically enhanced at the University of Ottawa, and both students and tutors report a more engaging and enjoyable experience. PBL is run in both the French and English languages.
The components of this new approach to PBL include the following:
1. Each weekly PBL problem for the Class of 2005 is now presented online for ease of distribution. Each problem is enriched with carefully chosen imagery to increase realism and enhance simulation. The focus of PBL at this level of training is directed at the learning of the basic sciences and the origins of disease processes. However, appropriate clinical imagery is also now incorporated into the problems to impart to the students the relevance and importance of the material that they are learning for their future careers.
A student scribe records on computer the learning objectives developed for a given problem by the student group at the first session of weekly PBL, usually on a Monday. These learning objectives are then distributed to the rest of the group and the tutor by e-mail. At a second session, usually on the Friday, the students reconvene to discuss the answers to the learning objectives for that problem. Students therefore have an electronic document with answers to their learning objectives, developed by themselves, and available for easy reference in the future.
2. Electronic Portal to bilingual Problem Based Learning, the PBL MedPortal: This software package allows access to the series of online problems in a password-protected manner. The software allows migration in a step by step fashion through the problem of the week but also allows access to a grouping of appropriate learning resources. This is a unique and entirely innovative approach based on recommendations from a Faculty Retreat and PBL experts within the Faculty. The software is in regular use.
3. Students are now able to evaluate both PBL content and their experience with tutors online, providing such information to the Faculty quickly.
4. Each medical student in the first year of studies at the University of Ottawa in September 2001 (the class of 2005) is using a laptop computer with the computer hard drives configured to contain all the programs, data and Internet, local network and email connections that the new e-Curriculum requires. The Faculty of Medicine has facilitated the acquisition of these laptop computers for students and provides technical support to maintain the hardware and software.
5. The small group learning rooms as well as the PBL rooms are hardwired for local network and Internet connections, so that students may access the online PBL problems and other resources (including most of the main stream online curriculum of lectures, labs, and workshops). 6. A guide to both PBL and using the software is available for students and tutors at www.med.uottawa.ca/pbl/guide. Students received an orientation to PBL and the software at the beginning of the year, and tutors for a given block of studies receive " just in time"; training for their sessions.
The introduction of computers to PBL has strong benefits but potentially negative effects as well. Our initial approach and experience with electronic PBL will be discussed. A prospective study of electronic PBL is currently being organized.
BENEFIT TO PARTICIPANTS ATTENDING SESSION:
PBL as an educational strategy for teaching medicine remains controversial. Some schools are looking at adopting this form of education but remain unconvinced of any clear benefits to the approach. Other schools are trying to increase the realism of PBL through electronic presentation of the problems, all enhanced with imagery from the basic and clinical sciences. In this presentation, we would outline our progress and experience. I think others would like to look at the software we developed for this, but more importantly take part in a discussion of how best to deliver PBL by computer. In electronic PBL, the tutor must ensure that the discussion dominates and not the technology. Our experience with this is interesting and we have learned several tips that I feel are worth sharing. I also feel that our approach is revitalizing PBL for tutors and students alike, and I think other educators would be interested in this. I feel that either a presentation or a demonstration would work and would leave the choice to the organizers. Thank you for your consideration.
Dr. Gordon Wallace, FRCPC
Director of Medical Learning and Technology Office, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, 451 Smyth Road (2155), Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1H 8M5.
Phone: 613-562-5800 (8400)
Fax: (613) 562-5420
Email: gwallace@uottawa.ca